Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 4: Chapter 1: Abnormal Death

Du Kang had always had a crush on his old classmate. He’d once heard some girls badmouthing Lu Qinglian behind her back, and in response, he’d thrown one of their bookbags into the boys’ bathroom and gotten suspended for a few days.

He was a man of action and had even confessed his feelings to her, but he was rejected. Who knew if, after all these years with both of them on the island, they had made any real progress.

Zhang Shutong figured Du Kang must be feeling terrible and was about to offer a listening ear when the other man, staring intently at the lake’s surface, suddenly spoke:

"She was murdered."

Zhang Shutong froze.

"I’m telling you, someone killed Lu Qinglian! I’ve told several people, but none of them believe me."

Du Kang took a harsh drag from his cigarette.

"I just saw her last week. She was completely normal—couldn’t have been more normal. She was busy restoring the statues in the Temple, and there was nothing wrong with her at all. Do you really believe the stories that she was depressed and killed herself?

"And this whole ’slipped and fell in the water’ story is bullshit, too. She usually stayed at the Temple or sometimes went to the school to spend time with the kids. Why would she suddenly go to the lakeside? And in the middle of the night... What, to go fucking fishing? Or for a swim?"

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, finally slamming his fist on the guardrail in front of him.

"When they found her body, it was in the ’Forbidden Zone.’ Shutong, you still remember the Forbidden Zone, don’t you?"

It took a moment for Zhang Shutong to recall the meaning behind those two words.

They were actually codenames they had come up with for a few areas on the island back in their cringey teenage years.

"Temple," "Base," "Forbidden Zone," and so on.

"Temple" was the easiest to understand—it was the Cyan Snake Temple in the mountains.

"Base" was a large, abandoned drainage culvert where they often played after school, so they treated it as their secret base.

And "Forbidden Zone" referred to a certain area of water in the lake on the west side of the island. Because it was low-lying and never got any sunlight, the surroundings were always desolate. The weeds were sparse, there were hardly any fish, and almost no one ever went there.

The reason it was called the Forbidden Zone was both complex and straightforward—

People had died in that stretch of water. More than one.

Faded memories surfaced in his mind.

Two incidents stood out in Zhang Shutong’s memory:

One had happened before he even moved to the island.

Getting to and from the island required a boat, and the ferry terminal was only open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The story went that a dozen or so years ago, a group of university students had come to stay on the island and had spent a whole day having fun in a nearby town. By the time they rushed back to the terminal, it was already evening. They waited for a long time, but there was no sign of a ferry.

It was the dead of winter, and a heavy snow was falling. It was cold enough to freeze the snot in your nose. They obviously couldn’t just wait on the shore all night, but the last bus back to town was gone. As the group was frantically trying to figure out what to do, a fishing boat suddenly pulled up.

It turned out to be a kind-hearted local fisherman who took pity on them and was willing to give them a lift.

It was a big fishing boat, so the group of more than a dozen people set off. The first half of the trip was smooth sailing, but halfway there, the boat inexplicably sank.

The strange thing was, when the bodies were discovered, the fishing boat was floating perfectly fine on the lake’s surface. It hadn’t capsized or sprung a leak, yet all dozen-plus of them had drowned.

No one knew what happened out there, and the spot where the boat sank was precisely the Forbidden Zone. A special task force was supposedly set up, and the official conclusion was that the snow that night had been too heavy, weighing the boat down until it sank. Later, when the snow melted, the boat naturally floated back up.

Zhang Shutong had always remembered the story because his mom used to tell it to him like a ghost story to scare him when he was a kid.

As for the second incident, his memory of it was hazy, but its implications were much more direct. It happened back in ninth grade, when a girl from their class went missing. But before he could recall any more details, Du Kang cut him off.

"Do you remember that murder case?"

’That was it. The murder case.’

Back in ninth grade, a vicious incident had occurred on the island. The victim was a girl from their class.

At first, the girl just didn’t show up for class. It wasn’t like now, with all sorts of class group chats to report things. Communication between the school and her parents was poor, so neither side paid much attention.

But in the end, it was the parents’ irresponsibility that led to tragedy. They waited a full day after their child went missing to report it, which delayed the search and rescue.

By the time the girl was found, she had already been murdered.

Her body was also discovered in the Forbidden Zone.

Their homeroom teacher at the time took the blame and resigned. The school even brought in counselors for psychological support. With the adults deliberately avoiding the topic, many of the details had become fuzzy.

He only remembered that she was the daughter of a rich family, with a pair of very spirited, beautiful eyes.

Her voice was crisp and carried a hint of arrogance.

If Zhang Shutong had one lasting impression of her, it was probably the red scarf she always wore. She even kept it on during class.

The reason he remembered it was because his deskmate had told him she was just "putting on airs."

Later, someone stepped on her scarf, but somehow she ended up blaming him for it, glaring at him with those eyes of hers.

’And there was something else... shortly before she disappeared, I think I saw her somewhere off campus...’

He was frowning, lost in thought, when Du Kang suddenly said:

"Shutong, you might have forgotten, but there’s something I’ve always remembered. Do you remember what date that girl disappeared?"

Then, Du Kang stated a date coldly:

"It was December 10th.

"None of you remember, but it happened to be my birthday, so I’ve always remembered very clearly that a classmate was absent that day.

"Now, look at what day it is today."

As he spoke, Du Kang shoved his phone screen in Zhang Shutong’s face. When he saw the date, his pupils contracted.

Today was December 12th.

’Doesn’t that mean two days ago was...’

"Don’t tell me the police—" A sudden chill ran down Zhang Shutong’s spine.